Henry Smith MP article, Politics First, September/October 2016
As the Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, over the last year I have worked on a number of campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of improved treatment and protection of dogs.
Among the Group’s officers are Conservative, Labour, Green and Scottish National Party MPs, as well as a crossbench member of the House of Lords.
Last year our APPG held the UK’s first ever Dog Conference; this brought together a whole range of stakeholders including DEFRA Minister George Eustice.
I was also delighted to bring my beagle, Frisbee, to London to take part in the Westminster Dog of the Year show!
Alongside the Kennel Club and the Dogs Trust I will continue to raise awareness of the need to ensure dogs are protected. The theme of last year’s event was to highlight the importance of access for dog walkers to the range of public open spaces in the UK – there are health and welfare benefits to dogs and their owners of making the most of such areas.
Ahead of the summer recess I once again joined with the League Against Cruel Sports in Parliament.
Its Project Bloodline investigation lasted six months, and sought to understand why, when and where dog fighting takes place, as well as how it can be stopped. I support the campaign to both increase the custodial sentences for such abuse to at least three years, as well as the League’s call for a national register of animal abusers.
Among the startling findings in their report included prohibited dogs bred and sold in a clandestine market in order to supply the high demand for status and fighting dogs with Pitbull-type puppies being sold for £1,000, and a feral cat colony being kept to supply ‘bait’ for dog fighting.
Clearly, more needs to be done. It is difficult for most of us to comprehend why anyone would even contemplate training dogs to fight, injure and kill.
There are a range of measures which can be undertaken to help tackle these problems. A key recommendation in this area is to ensure a national register of individuals banned from keeping dogs. This will help prevent further offences from being committed while providing statutory agencies with greater assistance in ensuring enforcement action is taken.
This issue goes beyond animal welfare; evidence from the UK and from abroad points to such activity being a ‘gateway’ crime to such organised offences as drug trafficking, illegal firearms and child abuse.
For example, in the United States, dog fighting is recognised as a Grade A felony by the FBI – the practise of tackling dog fighting to prevent other crimes is well established.
Outside of the UK, I am sure that anyone who has seen the results of investigations into the dog meat trade would be horrified with some of the findings.
The sight of dogs, bred inhumanely to ensure their swift future sale, is surely of deep concern to us all.
It is also a timely reminder that there are ways in which the UK can be seen as a world leader in animal welfare, and the Government must not lose sight of its responsibility to ensure it promotes such values as raising standards of care, as well as ensuring more compassionate treatments.
As a dog lover I also welcomed new laws which came into effect in April making it compulsory for dogs to be microchipped.
DEFRA figures from before the law change showed that more than 80 per cent of dog owners had already complied with these rules. The microchip means that if one of the 8.5 million dogs registered are found after going missing, they can be reunited with their owner.
The Government are expecting local authorities and charities, which would otherwise feed and home dogs which go missing, to make £33 million in annual savings if the dogs were to be microchipped and returned to their owners.
I am always pleased to receive messages from my constituents who support our efforts to improve animal welfare, and I look forward to continuing to raise these issues in Parliament and Whitehall.